APNew England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick looks up at a replay on the scoreboard against the New York Jets during the second quarter of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 6, 2010, in Foxborough, Mass.

FOXBOROUGH – ‘We need to play a full 60 minutes’.

It’s a phrase that first popped up in the New England Patriots’ locker room following a Week 1 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals and slowly progressed into becoming the unofficial mantra of the Patriots’ season.

The reason they couldn’t get the phrase out of their mouth is because they couldn’t accomplish the task.

When asked if he felt like the Patriots were rubbing their noses in it, Jets coach Rex Ryan said that there might have been a little bit of that going on.

“Probably. I mean, I don’t think he was necessarily trying to rub it in, but this is the same team that took a bunch of shots on us and they had paybacks,” Ryan said. “I mean, let’s face it, we kicked their butt at our place. So you know, they are trying to come back. So, trust me, we will remember this. There is no question about that.”

While Ryan’s stance may be viewed as sensitive in the New England region, there is some evidence to support him.

Up 38-3 in the fourth quarter, they elected to go for it on fourth down from the 19-yard line instead of kicking an easy field goal.

They converted and added to their lead two plays later on a touchdown run by BenJarvus Green-Ellis.

Then there were the shots downfield.

After taking possession of the ball with 3 minutes, 50 seconds left in the third quarter up 31-3, Brady threw deep several times, completing passes of 15, 11 and 50 yards during a 94-yard scoring drive that ended early in the fourth quarter.

The starters played until the final whistle.

When asked about this, Belichick was somewhat taken aback, explaining that it was all part of getting his team to play a full 60-minute game.

“When you see those leads diminish in the fourth quarter – which, unfortunately, we’ve seen a few times; so has everybody else – then you look at it a little bit differently,” Belichick said. “When they don’t diminish, then you want to go on and talk about what the final score was, but that’s not the score while the game is still going on.”

Brady echoed these sentiments during his weekly paid appearance on WEEI radio.

“Well, I think 31-3, I don’t feel like the game’s over, 31-3. I know probably on TV it looks like, OK, this game’s over,” Brady said. “We’re trying to play 60 minutes of football. We’ve been talking about that all season.”

But does he feel bad for the Jets that they had to take such a savage beating to accomplish their goal?